Indian-American GOP Presidential candidate Nikki Haley has said she is not interested in being the vice president of the United States, asserting that she is contending to win and become the next president.
Her remarks came ahead of the Iowa caucuses on Monday, which formally kicks off the beginning of the long process by which the Republicans and Democrats choose their nominees for the presidential election on November 5. “I don’t play for a second. I’ve never played for a second. I’m not going to start now,” the 51-year-old former US ambassador to the UN said in response to a question about how she felt about some voters saying they would prefer her as a vice president rather than a president.
“I’m not interested in being vice president. I’m running to be president, and I’m running to win, and we will, the former South Carolina governor said in a CBS News interview. With the Republican contest to choose the nominee for the November 2024 presidential elections beginning on Monday with the Iowa caucus, former president Donald Trump, a front-runner among the party candidates, maintains a sizable lead over Haley, his nearest rival.
48 percent of likely Republican caucusgoers pick Trump, 77, as their first choice for president a slight dip from the 51 percent who said the same in December, according to the latest Des Moines Register/NBC News/Mediacom Iowa Poll. Haley, the lone woman candidate in the race, has the support of 20 percent, an increase of four percent, while Florida Governor Ron DeSantis slipped to third place with 16 percent.
On being pressed further on what she would say to voters who like her for vice president but who are still backing Trump, Halet said, “Well, I think look, if you want four more years of chaos, that’s what you’re gonna get. But what’s more concerning is, you look at those head-to-head polls, Trump and Biden are pretty much even. It’s going to be a nail-biter of an election. We’re going to be holding our breath I don’t want a President Kamala Harris.”
On Sunday, the senior Republican leader said that the GOP contest to choose the presidential nominee is going to be a two-person race between her and Trump. “What you’re going to see is this is quickly going to become a two-person race. I think it’s going to be me and Donald Trump going into New Hampshire. And you’re going to see it’s already close. It’s going to get even closer. And then we’re going to take it to my state in South Carolina,” Haley told Fox News in an interview on Sunday.
(With agency inputs)
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